Systems and methods for real-time and selective enablement of shared access cells

ABSTRACT

Techniques described herein may allow for the selective enabling and/or disabling of shared access points (“SAPs”). The selective enabling and/or disabling may occur based on the analysis of key performance indicators (“KPIs”) associated with the SAPs. The selective enabling and/or disabling may cause the SAPs to cease (or continue) broadcasting their availability for User Equipment (“UEs”) of a particular wireless provider, decline (or accept) bearer requests for UEs of the particular wireless provider, or terminate existing connections with UEs of the particular wireless provider. The selective enabling and/or disabling may be performed for certain applications or Quality of Service (“QoS”) levels. The selective enabling and/or disabling may be performed proactively (e.g., without necessarily determining that the performance for a given SAP has not met a threshold performance), based on historical trends.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/440,875 (published as U.S. Patent Application Pub. No.2018/0242220), titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REAL-TIME AND SELECTIVEENABLEMENT OF SHARED ACCESS CELLS,” filed Feb. 23, 2017, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

User devices, such as wireless telephones may wirelessly connect to awireless network via a base station. The base station may providemultiple carriers, to which the user devices may attach. The term“carrier” may refer to a particular radio access technology (“RAT”), aparticular frequency band, and/or a particular set of frequencies withina frequency band. The frequency bands, provided by the base station, mayinclude licensed frequency bands. “Licensed” frequency bands may befrequency bands which have been licensed, by an authoritative entity,such as a government agency, for exclusive use by a particular wirelessnetwork service provider. In some situations, the base station may alsoprovide service according to one or more shared frequency bands.“Shared” frequency bands may be frequency bands that have beenauthorized (e.g., by an authoritative entity) for use by multiplewireless network service providers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example overview of one or more implementationsdescribed herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment, in which systems and/ormethods, described herein, may be implemented;

FIG. 3 illustrates example functional components of a monitoring anddecision component (“MDC”), in accordance with some implementations;

FIGS. 4-6 illustrate example processes for selectively enabling ordisabling a shared access point (“SAP”), in accordance with someimplementations;

FIG. 7 conceptually illustrates an example of selective activation ordeactivation of an SAP based on key performance indicators (“KPIs”) of alicensed cell that does not directly provide KPIs to an MDC;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process for selectively enabling ordisabling an SAP and/or outputting an alert when certain KPIs, relatingto the SAP, do not exceed a certain threshold;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example process for proactively enabling ordisabling an SAP based on historical trends; and

FIG. 10 illustrates example components of a device, in accordance withsome implementations described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the sameor similar elements.

In addition to using exclusively licensed carriers (e.g., wirelessfrequency bands), wireless providers may also use “shared” carriers,which are shared among multiple wireless providers. Because sharedcarriers are not typically exclusively controlled by a given wirelessprovider, challenges may arise in providing satisfactory or optimalQuality of Service (“QoS”) when using shared carriers. Furthermore,since it is not typically visible to subscribers of a given wirelessprovider whether their devices are attached to an exclusively licensedcarrier (e.g., a frequency band that is licensed for use by the wirelessprovider) or to a shared carrier (e.g., a frequency band that islicensed for use by the wireless provider and one or more other wirelessproviders), subscribers may unfairly attribute poor QoS to theirwireless provider when a shared carrier provides the poor QoS.

Systems and/or methods, described herein, may allow for the selectiveenablement or disablement of shared carriers, based on key performanceindicators (“KPIs”) relating to the shared carriers and/or exclusivelylicensed carriers. Thus, in situations where shared access cells (e.g.,coverage areas implemented by one or more devices, such as radiotransceivers that implement one or more shared carriers) are notproviding adequate performance, the shared access cells can be“disabled” by one or more wireless providers (e.g., by way of the one ormore wireless providers providing “disable” instructions to devices thatimplement the shared access cells). Shared access cells that are“disabled” by a particular wireless provider may cease broadcastingtheir presence and/or availability to user equipment (“UE”) associatedwith the particular wireless provider, and the UEs may attempt toconnect to other cells (e.g., other shared access cells that have notbeen disabled, or licensed cells associated with the particular wirelessprovider).

As also described herein, the enablement or disablement may be performedon a per-application basis. For example, while a shared access cell maybe able to provide adequate QoS for one type of application (e.g., datatransfer), the same shared access cell may be unable to provide adequateQoS for another type of application (e.g., voice calling). In accordancewith some implementations, such a shared access cell may be disabled forvoice calling, but enabled for data transfers.

In some implementations, the enablement or disablement of shared accesscells may be performed based on whether KPIs, associated with the sharedaccess cells, exceed certain thresholds. In some implementations, theenablement or disablement may be performed based on a comparison ofKPIs, associated with the shared access cells, with KPIs associated withlicensed cells. In this manner, even if a shared access cell is notcapable of providing optimal QoS, it may still be preferable to use theshared access cell if a licensed cell is even less capable of providingthe optimal QoS.

As shown in FIG. 1, for example, a UE may establish (at arrow 1) aconnection with a shared access cell. A monitoring and decisioncomponent (“MDC”) may, on an ongoing basis, monitor KPIs associated withthe shared access cell. As also pictured, the MDC may also monitor KPIsassociated with one or more licensed cells of a particular wirelessprovider. The KPIs may include, for example, KPIs related to performancemetrics (e.g., latency, throughput, etc.), communication quality metrics(e.g., jitter, packet error loss rate, signal strength, etc.), networkload metrics (e.g., quantity of connected devices, amount of used oravailable resource blocks, etc.), and/or one or more other types ofKPIs.

At some point, based on the monitored KPIs, the MDC may determine (atarrow 2) that the shared access cell is underperforming. For instance,one or more of the KPIs associated with the shared access cell may notmeet a threshold (e.g., a minimum acceptable threshold). Additionally,or alternatively, one or more of the KPIs associated with the sharedaccess cell may be underperforming compared to the licensed cell (e.g.,the licensed cell is able to provide lower latency, lower jitter, highersignal to interference and noise ratio (“SINR”), etc.). As mentionedabove, the KPIs may be evaluated on a per-application basis, and the MDCmay determine whether the shared access cell is underperforming for oneor more given applications.

Based on this determination, the MDC may send (at arrow 3) a “disable”instruction to the shared access cell. In some implementations, the“disable” instruction may specify one or more applications for which theshared access cell should be disabled. Based on receiving the “disable”instruction, the shared access cell may cause (at arrow 4) existingconnections with UEs to be broken, and/or may stop accepting newconnections from other UEs. For instance, the shared access cell maycease broadcasting information (e.g., system information blocks(“SIBs”)) indicating the presence and/or availability of the sharedaccess cell for UEs associated with the particular wireless provider.

Since the connection with the shared access cell is broken, the UE maysearch for another cell for wireless connectivity. As a result of thesearch, the UE may connect (at arrow 5) with another cell, such as thelicensed cell shown in FIG. 1. Because the UE is no longer connected tothe underperforming shared access cell, the UE may receive better QoSfrom the licensed cell, thus enhancing the experience of the user of theUE. Further, the enablement and disablement of shared access cell mayallow a UE to be steered towards, or away from, shared access cellswithout modifying the logic and/or hardware of the UE.

FIG. 2 illustrates example environment 200, in which systems and/ormethods described herein may be implemented. As shown in FIG. 2,environment 200 may include UE 205, one or more shared access points(“SAPs”) 210, one or more licensed base stations 212, SGW 220, mobilitymanagement entity device (“MME”) 225, packet data network (“PDN”)gateway (“PGW”) 230, policy and charging rules function (“PCRF”) 235,home subscriber server (“HSS”)/authentication, authorization, accounting(“AAA”) server 240 (hereinafter referred to as “HSS/AAA server 240”),and PDN 245. While “direct” connections are shown in FIG. 2 betweencertain devices, some devices may communicate with each other via one ormore intermediary devices (e.g., routers, switch, hubs, etc.) ornetworks (e.g., an Ethernet backhaul network (“EBH”) and/or some othertype of network). Furthermore, some of the connections shown in FIG. 2may be logical connections, and may represent the communication betweendifferent logical portions of a single device. Further, in someimplementations, some devices, shown in FIG. 2, may communicate witheach other even though connections are not shown between such devices inthe figure.

Environment 200 may include an evolved packet system (“EPS”) thatincludes a Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) radio accessnetwork (“RAN”) and/or an Evolved Packet Core (“EPC”) network that isoperated based on a 3GPP wireless communication standard. The RAN maybe, or may include, a Long-Term Evolution (“LTE”) network, a fifthgeneration (“5G”) RAN, etc., that each include one or more SAPs 210,and/or licensed base stations 212 (which may take the form of evolvedNodeBs (“eNBs”)), via which UE 205 may communicate with the EPC network.The EPC network may include one or more SGWs 220, PGWs 230, and/or MMEs225, and may enable UE 205 to communicate with PDN 245 and/or anInternet protocol (“IP”) multimedia subsystem (“IMS”) core network (notshown). The IMS core network may include and/or communicate with HSS/AAAserver 240, and may manage authentication, session initiation, accountinformation, a user profile, etc., associated with UE 205.

UE 205 may include a computation and communication device, such as awireless mobile communication device that is capable of communicatingwith SAP 210, licensed base station 212, and/or PDN 245. UE 205 may be,or may include, a radiotelephone; a personal communications system(“PCS”) terminal (e.g., a device that combines a cellular radiotelephonewith data processing and data communications capabilities); a personaldigital assistant (“PDA”) (e.g., a device that may include aradiotelephone, a pager, Internet/intranet access, etc.); a smart phone;a laptop computer; a tablet computer; a camera; a personal gamingsystem; or another type of mobile computation and communication device.UE 205 may send traffic to and/or receive traffic from PDN 245 via SAP210, licensed base station 212, SGW 220, and/or PGW 230.

SAP 210 and/or licensed base station 212 may each include one or morenetwork devices that receive, process, and/or transmit traffic, such ascalls, audio, video, text, and/or other data, destined for and/orreceived from UE 205. In one example, SAP 210 and/or licensed basestation 212 may be part of an LTE network, a 5G network, etc. SAP 210and/or licensed base station 212 may receive traffic, destined for UE205, from SGW 220, PGW 230, and/or PDN 245, and may output the trafficto UE 205. SAP 210 and/or licensed base station 212 may also receivetraffic from UE 205, and may output the traffic to its intendeddestination via SGW 220, PGW 230, and/or PDN 245. In someimplementations, one particular SAP 210 may be owned and/or operated bya single wireless provider, and may operate on a set of frequencies thatare shared with other wireless providers. In some implementations, SAP210 may be owned by a particular entity, and may be accessed by UEs 205of multiple wireless providers.

SAP 210 may implement one or more shared access cells (e.g., providewireless connectivity to UE 205 on one or more carriers that are sharedamong multiple wireless providers). Licensed base station 212 mayimplement one or more licensed cells (e.g., provide wirelessconnectivity to UE 205 on one or more carriers that are exclusivelylicensed, such as by an authoritative and/or governmental entity, to asingle wireless provider). SAP 210 and licensed base station 212 may beimplemented as separate sets of radio equipment (e.g., one set of radioequipment, radio controllers, and/or towers may correspond to SAP 210,while another set of radio equipment, radio controllers, and/or towersmay correspond to licensed base station 212). In some implementations,SAP 210 and licensed base station 212 may be implemented using some orall of the same equipment (e.g., some radio equipment, radiocontrollers, and/or towers may be used to implement a particular SAP 210and a particular licensed base station 212).

The term “licensed,” as used herein, is not meant to suggest that SAPs210 are not licensed in any way. That is, the same or a differentauthoritative entity may provide “licenses” to multiple wirelessproviders to access SAP 210. However, the term “licensed” is used hereinto differentiate base stations, cells, carriers, etc. that have beenlicensed for exclusive use by one wireless provider from base stations,cells, carriers, etc. that have been licensed for shared access bymultiple wireless providers.

As described in greater detail below, MDC 215 may include one or moredevices that monitor KPIs associated with UE 205, SAP 210, and/orlicensed base station 212, and “enable” or “disable” licensed basestation 212 based on the instructions. In some implementations, MDC 215may be implemented partially or entirely within the same hardware as SAP210, licensed base station 212, SGW 220, and/or one or more otherdevices. In some implementations, MDC 215 may be implemented as separatehardware from SAP 210, licensed base station 212, and SGW 220.

SGW 220 may include one or more network devices that gather, process,search, store, and/or provide information in a manner described herein.SGW 220 may, for example, aggregate traffic received from one or morebase stations 210, and may send the aggregated traffic to PDN 245 viaPGW 230.

MME 225 may include one or more computation and communication devicesthat perform operations to register UE 205 with the EPS, to establishbearer channels associated with a session with UE 205, to hand off UE205 from the EPS to another network, to hand off UE 205 from the othernetwork to the EPS, and/or to perform other operations. MME 225 mayperform policing operations on traffic destined for and/or received fromUE 205.

PGW 230 may include one or more network devices that gather, process,search, store, and/or provide information in a manner described herein.PGW 230 may aggregate traffic received from one or more SGWs 220, etc.and may send the aggregated traffic to PDN 245 (e.g., via trafficoptimizer(s) 245). PGW 230 may also, or alternatively, receive trafficfrom PDN 245 and may send the traffic toward UE 205 via base station 210and/or SGW 220.

PCRF 235 may include one or more devices that aggregate information toand from the EPC network and/or other sources. PCRF 235 may receiveinformation regarding policies and/or subscriptions from one or moresources, such as subscriber databases and/or from one or more users(such as, for example, an administrator associated with PCRF 235).

HSS/AAA server 240 may include one or more devices that manage, update,and/or store, in a memory associated with HSS/AAA server 240, profileinformation associated with a subscriber. HSS/AAA server 240 may performauthentication, authorization, and/or accounting operations associatedwith the subscriber and/or a communication session with UE 205.

PDN 245 may include one or more wired and/or wireless networks. Forexample, PDN 245 may include an IP-based PDN, a wide area network(“WAN”) such as the Internet, a private enterprise network, and/or oneor more other networks. UE 205 may connect, through PGW 230, to dataservers, application servers, other UEs 205, and/or to other servers orapplications that are coupled to PDN 245. PDN 245 may be connected toone or more other networks, such as a public switched telephone network(“PSTN”), a public land mobile network (“PLMN”), and/or another network.PDN 245 may be connected to one or more devices, such as contentproviders, applications, web servers, and/or other devices, with whichUE 205 may communicate.

FIG. 3 illustrates example functional components of MDC 215, inaccordance with some implementations. As shown, MDC 215 may include SAPKPI monitoring component 305, licensed base station monitoring component310, UE KPI monitoring component 315, and activation/deactivationcomponent 320. These functional components may be implemented byhardware circuitry, software logic, or a combination thereof. In someimplementations, the functions described as being performed by onecomponent of MDC 215 may be performed in whole or in part by one or moreother components. Additionally, in some implementations, one componentmay perform the function (or functions) of one or more other components.

SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may monitor KPIs associated with one ormore SAPs 210. For instance, SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may becommunicatively coupled, either directly or indirectly, to one or moreSAPs 210. SAPs 210 may provide KPI information to SAP KPI monitoringcomponent 305. As discussed above, the KPIs may relate to performancemetrics, communication quality metrics, network load metrics, and/orother types of KPIs. In some implementations, the KPIs may be providedon a per-UE basis. For instance, SAP KPI monitoring component 305 maymonitor, or receive, KPI information from a particular SAP 210, wherethe KPI information identifies a particular UE 205 to which the KPIinformation relates. The identifying information may include, forinstance, an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (“IMSI”) value, anInternational Mobile Station Equipment Identity (“IMEI”), a MobileDirectory Number (“MDN”), an IP address, a Session Initiation Protocol(“SIP”) address, a Uniform Resource Identifier (“URI”), and/or someother identifier for UE 205. In some implementations, in lieu of using a“real world” identifier such as IMSI, IMEI, MDN, etc., SAP KPImonitoring component 305 may assign a unique identifier to a particularUE 205, in efforts to protect the privacy of UE 205.

SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may monitor the KPIs, relating to SAP210, on an ongoing basis. For instance, SAP KPI monitoring component 305may request, from SAP 210, KPI information on a periodic or intermittentbasis. For example, SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may request the KPIinformation every second, every 30 seconds, every hour, etc. As anotherexample, SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may request KPI informationwhen network conditions are amenable to the KPI information beingprovided to SAP KPI monitoring component 305. In such implementations,SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may monitor a network and/or othercommunication pathway, via which SAP KPI monitoring component 305 andSAP 210 communicate, and request KPI information when the availablebandwidth is above a particular threshold (and/or based on other networkconditions).

Additionally, or alternatively to SAP KPI monitoring component 305requesting the KPI information, SAP 210 may “push” the KPI informationto SAP KPI monitoring component 305. That is, even in the absence of aspecific request for KPI information at a given time, SAP 210 mayprovide (e.g., on a periodic or intermittent basis) KPI information toSAP KPI monitoring component 305. SAP KPI monitoring component 305 mayrequest, and/or SAP 210 may push, KPI information in real time ornear-real time, so that activation/deactivation component 320 (asdescribed below) can dynamically determine whether SAP 210 should beenabled or disabled.

SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may communicate with SAP 210 via anApplication Programming Interface (“API”), which allows SAP KPImonitoring component 305 to query SAP 210 for KPI information and/orallows SAP KPI monitoring component 305 and SAP 210 to establish acommunication pathway via which SAP 210 can push KPI information to SAPKPI monitoring component 305. In some implementations, SAP KPImonitoring component 305 may be implemented in part at SAP 210. Forexample, SAP KPI monitoring component 305 may monitor physical portsand/or other hardware at SAP 210, and calculate and/or provide KPIinformation, based on the monitoring, to MDC 215.

In some implementations, the KPI information, monitored by SAP KPImonitoring component 305, may be averaged over a given time window. Forexample, if SAP KPI monitoring component 305 monitors KPI informationevery x seconds, the first set of KPI information may include averageKPI values (e.g., average latency values, average throughout values,average jitter values, etc.) between an initial time t₀ and a time xseconds later, t_(x). The next set of KPI information may includeaverage KPI values between times t_(x) and t_(2x). The following set ofKPI information may include average KPI values between times t_(2x) andt_(3x), and so on.

In some implementations, the KPI information may be some other function,other than the average value (e.g., maximum, minimum, median, mode,etc.), of KPI values over a given interval. For instance, referringagain to an example where if SAP KPI monitoring component 305 monitorsKPI information every x seconds, the first set of KPI information mayinclude a maximum of a particular KPI between time t₀ and t_(x). Thenext set of KPI information may include a maximum of the particular KPIbetween times t_(x) and t_(2x), the following set of KPI information mayinclude the maximum of the particular KPI between times t_(2x) andt_(3x), and so on.

In some implementations, the KPI information may be “snapshot”information, taken at specific times (e.g., at the beginning, middle, orend of a given interval), or at arbitrary times within a given interval.For instance, referring again to an example where if SAP KPI monitoringcomponent 305 monitors KPI information every x seconds, the first set ofKPI information may include a KPI value measured at time t₀, the nextset of KPI information may include a KPI value measured at time t_(x),the following set of KPI information may include a KPI value measured attime t_(2x), and so on.

In some implementations, the KPI information may include all “raw” KPIvalues measured over a given interval. The manner in which KPIinformation is monitored by SAP KPI monitoring component 305 (e.g.,average, maximum, minimum, snapshot, all raw values, etc.) may beconfigurable by an owner, administrator, operator, etc. of MDC 215and/or of SAP 210.

Licensed base station monitoring component 310 may monitor KPIsassociated with one or more licensed base stations 212. Similar to theoperation of SAP KPI monitoring component 305, licensed base stationmonitoring component 310 may receive KPIs from licensed base station 212(e.g., based on a request to licensed base station 212 and/or based onlicensed base station 212 pushing KPI information to licensed basestation monitoring component 310). Licensed base station monitoringcomponent 310 may communicate with licensed base station 212 via an API,and/or through one or more physical interfaces. Licensed base stationmonitoring component 310 may, in some implementations, be implementedpartially or entirely within one or more licensed base stations 212. Insome implementations, licensed base station monitoring component 310 maybe implemented as one or more devices that are separate from licensedbase station 212.

As similarly discussed above with respect to SAP KPI monitoringcomponent 305, licensed base station monitoring component 310 mayreceive KPI information from licensed base station 212 at periodicand/or intermittent times. The KPI information received for a given timeinterval may be the average, maximum, minimum, etc. value over the giventime interval. Additionally, or alternatively, the KPI informationreceived for a given time interval may be “snapshot” KPI informationwithin the given time interval (e.g., at an arbitrary or random timewithin the time interval, or at a specific time within the timeinterval, such as the beginning, middle, or end of the time interval).In some implementations, licensed base station monitoring component 310may receive all “raw” KPI values, within a given time interval, fromlicensed base station 212. In some implementations, the KPI values maybe UE-specific (e.g., information for certain KPIs may identify one ormore UEs 205 with which the KPIs are associated).

UE KPI monitoring component 315 may monitor KPIs associated with one ormore UEs 205. In some implementations, UE KPI monitoring component 315may receive the KPIs via a direct communication with UE 205 (e.g., UE205 and UE KPI monitoring component 315 may communicate, such as throughan API, in order for the UE 205 to provide KPI information to UE KPImonitoring component 315). In some implementations, an application maybe installed at UE 205, which communicates with UE KPI monitoringcomponent 315. Such an application may be installed, for example, withthe consent of a user of UE 205, and with the option to uninstall theapplication entirely at the user's request. In some implementations, anoperating system or firmware of UE 205 may have the “built-in”functionality to communicate with UE KPI monitoring component 315. Suchfunctionality may be disabled by the user at any time, and thefunctionality may be disabled until the user “opts in” (i.e., grantsaffirmative consent) to provide UE KPI information.

As similarly described above with respect to SAP KPI monitoringcomponent 305 and licensed base station monitoring component 310, UE KPImonitoring component 315 may receive KPI information from UE 205, on anongoing basis, based on requests from UE KPI monitoring component 315and/or based on KPI information being pushed from UE 205 to UE KPImonitoring component 315. In some implementations, the KPI information,received from UE 205, may relate to cells that are in communicationsrange of UE 205. For instance, UE 205 may provide information indicatingReceived Signal Strength Indicator (“RSSI”) values, SINR values, etc. ofone or more cells (e.g., one or more SAPs 210 and/or licensed basestations 212) that are in range of UE 205. Some of the cells, for whichUE 205 reports KPI information, may be cells from which MDC 215 does notreceive KPI information. Alternatively, some of these cells may be cellsfrom which MDC 215 receives KPI information, and the KPI informationfrom UE 205, relating to these cells, may supplement KPI informationreceived from the cells.

Activation/deactivation component 320 may, based on the KPIs monitoredby SAP KPI monitoring component 305, licensed base station monitoringcomponent 310, and/or UE KPI monitoring component 315, makedeterminations as to whether particular SAPs 210 should be enabled ordisabled. For example, generally speaking, if the KPIs associated with aparticular SAP 210 are below one or more thresholds,activation/deactivation component 320 may determine that SAP 210 shouldbe “disabled,” and send a “disable” instruction to SAP 210 (if SAP 210is not already disabled). Upon receiving the “disable” instruction, SAP210 may cease broadcasting its availability and/or presence to UEs 205that are associated with a particular wireless provider (e.g., awireless provider with which MDC 215 and licensed base stations 212 areassociated), and/or may disconnect UEs 205 (associated with theparticular wireless provider) that are connected to SAP 210.

If, on the other hand, the KPIs associated with SAP 210 exceed one ormore thresholds, activation/deactivation component 320 may determinethat SAP 210 should be “enabled,” and send an “enable” instruction toSAP 210 (if SAP 210 is not already enabled). Upon receiving the “enable”instruction, SAP 210 may broadcast (or continue broadcasting) itsavailability and/or presence to UEs 205 that are associated with aparticular wireless provider (e.g., a wireless provider with which MDC215 and licensed base stations 212 are associated).

In some implementations, in addition to, or in lieu of evaluating theKPIs, associated with licensed base station monitoring component 310, topre-defined thresholds, activation/deactivation component 320 maycompare the KPIs, associated with SAP 210, to KPIs associated with oneor more licensed base stations 212. For example, certain SAPs 210 andlicensed base stations 212 may be “co-located” (e.g., located within acertain distance from each other, such as within 10 meters, 100 meters,etc.). Activation/deactivation component 320 may compare KPIs,associated with co-located SAP 210 and licensed base station 212. Basedon the comparison, activation/deactivation component 320 may determinethat some or all of the KPIs for licensed base station 212 exceed theKPIs for SAP 210. In some implementations, activation/deactivationcomponent 320 may determine whether the KPIs for licensed base station212 exceed the KPIs for SAP 210 by at least a certain amount (i.e., notjust that the KPIs for licensed base station 212 exceed the KPIs for SAP210, but that the KPIs for licensed base station 212 substantially orsignificantly exceed the KPIs for SAP 210). In some implementations,activation/deactivation component 320 may compare the KPIs of SAP 210and licensed base station 212 only in situations where the KPIs for SAP210 do not exceed a certain threshold. In this sense, even when licensedbase station 212 is capable of providing better performance than SAP210, SAP 210 may still be used when capable of providing acceptableperformance. Additionally, the comparison of SAP 210 and licensed basestation 212 may result in SAP 210 still being used, even in situationswhere SAP 210 does not provide an “acceptable” level of performance, insituations where licensed base station 212 would provide worseperformance.

Once a particular SAP 210 is enabled (or disabled),activation/deactivation component 320 may start a timer, based on whichthe state of SAP 210 cannot be changed (e.g., cannot be set fromdisabled to enabled or vice versa). The use of this timer may preventthe excessive enabling and disabling of SAP 210, which could result in apoor user experience for UEs 205. Once the timer has been expended, thestate of SAP 210 can once again be changed, in accordance with someimplementations. In some implementations, the timer for changing thestate from “disabled” to “enabled” may be different from (e.g., mayexpire sooner than, or later than) the timer for changing the state from“enabled” to “disabled.” In some implementations, the state change from“disabled” to “enabled” may have a timer, while the state change from“enabled” to “disabled” may not have a timer (e.g., the state of SAP 210may be changed from “enabled” to “disabled” without any restriction ofwhen the state was changed from “disabled” to “enabled”), or vice versa.

As discussed above, KPIs may be monitored on a per-UE basis.Activation/deactivation component 320 may use the identifyinginformation, associated with KPIs, to determine whether KPIs are skewedfor one UE 205 or for a set of UEs 205. For instance, if a particular UE205 is located on subterranean level of a building, the KPIs for that UE205 may be vastly different than KPIs for other UEs 205.Activation/deactivation component 320 may, in some implementations,perform a statistical analysis to exclude outliers (e.g., KPIsassociated with certain UEs 205) when KPI information associated withparticular UEs 205 is vastly different from KPI information associatedwith other UEs 205.

In some implementations, activation/deactivation component 320 mayevaluate whether SAP 210 should be disabled or enabled on aper-application basis. For example, while the KPIs, associated with aparticular SAP 210, may be acceptable for some applications, the sameKPIs may not be acceptable for other applications. For instance, a voicecall application may rely heavily on latency, packet loss, and jitter,without necessarily relying on a high throughput. On the other hand, adata transfer application may rely heavily on throughput, withoutnecessarily relying heavily on latency or jitter. Accordingly,activation/deactivation component 320 may evaluate KPIs while takinginto account the particular KPIs that are more critical for certainapplications. Specifically, for instance, activation/deactivationcomponent 320 may generate a score for a particular SAP 210, based onthe KPIs for that SAP 210. The score may be based on the KPIs (e.g.,normalized scores assigned to each KPI, and combined into an overallscore for SAP 210). In some implementations, the scores for certain KPIsmay be weighted more heavily for different applications. For example,latency may be scored on a normalized scale of 0-100 for data transferapplications, and on a scale of 0-200 for voice call applications.

In some implementations, activation/deactivation component 320 mayevaluate KPIs on a per-QoS level basis. For instance,activation/deactivation component 320 may evaluate whether SAP 210should be enabled or disabled for certain QoS levels (or, in the contextof an LTE environment, QoS Class Identifiers (“QCIs”)). Similar to thediscussion above regarding per-application analysis, certain KPIs may bemore heavily weighted for certain QCIs.

Once activation/deactivation component 320 determines that a particularSAP 210 should be disabled for a particular application and/or QCI,activation/deactivation component 320 may output a “disable” instructionto SAP 210, and may further indicate in the instruction whichapplication(s) or QCI(s) should be disabled. Once SAP 210 receives aninstruction that an application or a QCI should be disabled, SAP 210 maymodify its broadcasting to indicate that the application or QCI is notavailable at SAP 210 (or may modify its broadcasting to forgo indicatingthat the application or QCI is available at SAP 210). Additionally, oralternatively, SAP 210 may reject bearer establishment requests forapplications or QCIs that correspond to disabled applications or QCIs,and/or may terminate existing bearers that correspond to disabledapplications or QCIs.

Similarly, once activation/deactivation component 320 determines that aparticular SAP 210 should be enabled for a particular application and/orQCI, activation/deactivation component 320 may output an “enable”instruction to SAP 210. This instruction may indicate whichapplication(s) or QCI(s) should be enabled. Once SAP 210 receives aninstruction that an application or a QCI should be enabled, SAP 210 maymodify its broadcasting to indicate that the application or QCI isavailable at SAP 210, and may accept bearer establishment requests forapplications or QCIs that correspond to enabled applications or QCIs.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process 400, in which a particular SAP 210may be enabled or disabled based on KPIs, associated with a particularSAP 210, meeting or not meeting threshold values. In someimplementations, process 400 may be performed by MDC 215. While process400 is described in the context of one SAP 210, the same or a similarprocess can be performed (e.g., simultaneously, in parallel), formultiple SAPs 210.

As shown, process 400 may include monitoring (at 405) KPIs associatedwith SAP 210. For example, as discussed above, MDC 215 (e.g., SAP KPImonitoring component 305) may receive KPI information associated withSAP 210 on an ongoing basis.

Process 400 may additionally include determining, based on the receivedKPI information, whether one or more KPIs meet a threshold (e.g., apre-defined threshold). For instance, as discussed above, MDC 215 (e.g.,activation/deactivation component 320) may compare the receivedinformation to threshold values. In determining whether the KPIs meetthe thresholds, MDC 215 may determine whether a single KPI threshold isnot met (e.g., where a latency threshold is not met but throughput andjitter thresholds are met), whether multiple KPI thresholds are not met(e.g., where latency and throughput thresholds are not met but a jitterthreshold is met), or whether all KPI thresholds are not met.

In some implementations, MDC 215 may evaluate certain KPIs for certainapplications or QCIs, while ignoring KPIs for those applications orQCIs. For instance, for a voice call application, MDC 215 may determinewhether latency and jitter thresholds are met, but may not evaluatewhether throughput thresholds are met. Additionally, or alternatively,as discussed above, thresholds may be different for differentapplications or QCIs. For instance, for a voice call application, MDC215 may determine whether a throughput threshold is met, but thatthroughput threshold may be different from a throughput thresholdassociated with a data transfer application.

In some implementations, MDC 215 may generate a score based on thereceived KPI information, and may compare the score to a thresholdscore. For instance, as discussed above, MDC 215 may generate a score ona normalized scale for each KPI (e.g., a score between 0-100 for alatency KPI, a score between 0-100 for a jitter KPI, and so on). MDC 215may generate an overall score based on the individual scores, andcompare that overall score to a threshold score. As mentioned above,individual scores may be weighted more or less heavily based onapplication or QCI.

In some implementations, thresholds may change based on time of day, dayof week, month of year, and/or on some other schedule. This may beuseful, for instance, when higher traffic is expected during certaintimes. In such situations, it may be desirable to have fewer devicesattached to SAP 210 and/or to licensed base station 212.

If the KPIs do not meet the threshold values (at 410—NO), then process400 may include outputting a “disable” instruction to SAP 210. If, onthe other hand, the KPIs for SAP 210 meet the threshold values (at410—YES), then process 400 may include determining (at 420) whether SAP210 is enabled or not. For example, MDC 215 may store informationindicating the state of SAP 210 (e.g., whether SAP 210 is enabled ordisabled). If the SAP is already enabled (at 420—YES), then process 400may return to block 405, and continue monitoring KPIs associated withSAP 210. If SAP 210 is not already enabled (at 420—NO), then MDC 215 mayoutput an “enable” instruction” to SAP 210.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process 500, in which a particular SAP 210may be enabled or disabled based on whether KPIs, associated with SAP210, exceed KPIs associated with licensed base station 212. In someimplementations, process 500 may be performed by MDC 215. While process500 is described in the context of one SAP 210, the same or a similarprocess can be performed (e.g., simultaneously, in parallel), formultiple SAPs 210.

As shown, process 500 may include monitoring KPI information associatedwith SAP 210, one or more licensed base stations 212, and/or one or moreUEs 205. For example, as described above with respect to SAP KPImonitoring component 305, licensed base station monitoring component310, and/or UE KPI monitoring component 315, MDC 215 may monitor theseKPIs on an ongoing basis.

Process 500 may additionally include determining (at 510) whether KPIsfor a particular licensed base station 212 exceed KPIs for SAP 210(e.g., based on the KPI information monitored at 505). For example, MDC215 may compare KPI information between SAP 210 and a particularlicensed base station 212 that is generally co-located. For instance, asmentioned above, MDC 215 may maintain information indicating a locationof one or more SAPs 210 and licensed base stations 212, and maydetermine that a licensed base station 212 that is located within aparticular threshold distance (e.g., within 10 meters, within 100meters, etc.) of a particular SAP 210 is “co-located” with SAP 210. Asanother example, MDC 215 may receive (at 505) KPI information from UE205 regarding both a particular SAP 210 and a particular licensed basestation 212 (e.g., signal strength measurements reported by UE 205), andmay compare the KPIs for those particular SAP 210 and licensed basestation 212.

When determining whether the KPIs for licensed base station 212 “exceed”KPIs for SAP 210, MDC 215 may generally determine if certain KPIs, forlicensed base station 212, are “better” or more “favorable” than for SAP210. For instance, a lower measure of latency may be considered“better,” a higher measure of throughput may be considered “better,” alower measure of jitter may be considered “better,” a higher SINR may beconsidered “better,” and so on. In some implementations, MDC 215 maydetermine whether the KPIs, for licensed base station 212, exceed KPIsfor SAP 210 by at least a threshold amount (e.g., a flat amount, apercentage, a proportion, etc.).

As an example, assume that a latency KPI for licensed base station 212is 1% lower than a latency KPI for SAP 210. In this example, furtherassume that the threshold difference is 10% in order for MDC 215 todetermine that the latency for licensed base station 212 sufficiently“exceeds” that of SAP 210. In this example, MDC 215 would determine thatthe latency KPI for licensed base station 212 does not sufficiently“exceed” that of SAP 210.

As similarly described above with respect to block 410 of process 400,MDC 215 may determine whether one particular KPI, associated withlicensed base station 212, exceeds a corresponding KPI associated withSAP 210; whether multiple (but not all) KPIs of licensed base station212 exceed corresponding KPIs of SAP 210; or whether all KPIs oflicensed base station 212 exceed corresponding KPIs of SAP 210. As alsosimilarly described above, MDC 215 may generate scores (e.g., normalizedscores) associated with particular KPIs (which may be weighted accordingto applications or QCIs), generate overall scores based on theseindividual scores, and compare the overall score for the KPIs of SAP 210with the overall score for the KPIs of licensed base station 212. Insome implementations, MDC 215 may further determine whether the overallscore, for licensed base station 212, exceeds the overall score for SAP210 by at least a threshold amount or percentage.

If the KPIs for licensed base station 212 do not exceed the KPIs for SAP210 (at 510—NO), then process 500 may include outputting (at 515) a“disable” instruction to SAP 210. If, on the other hand, the KPIs forlicensed base station 212 exceed the KPIs for SAP 210 (at 510—YES), thenprocess 500 may include determining whether SAP 210 is already enabled.If the SAP is already enabled (at 520—YES), then process 500 may returnto block 505, and continue monitoring KPIs associated with SAP 210. IfSAP 210 is not already enabled (at 520—NO), then MDC 215 may output (at525) an “enable” instruction” to SAP 210.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process 600, in which a particular SAP 210may be enabled or disabled based on KPIs, associated with SAP 210,meeting or not meeting threshold values on a per-QCI basis. In someimplementations, process 500 may be performed by MDC 215. While process600 is described in the context of one SAP 210, the same or a similarprocess can be performed (e.g., simultaneously, in parallel), formultiple SAPs 210. Since some of the operations of process 600 aresimilar to those described above with respect to process 400, not all ofthese operations will be explained in detail below.

As shown, process 600 may include monitoring (at 605) KPIs associatedwith one or more SAPs 210. Process 600 may additionally includedetermining (at 610) whether the KPIs for SAP 210 meet threshold valuesfor a particular QCI.

If the KPIs do not meet the threshold values (at 610—NO), then process600 may include outputting (at 615) a “disable” instruction to SAP 210.The “disable” instruction may specify the QCI for which SAP 210 shouldbe disabled. As discussed above, based on this instruction, SAP 210 maycease broadcasting its availability to handle traffic according to theQCI, may stop accepting bearer establishment requests that correspond tothe QCI, and/or may terminate existing bearers that are associated withthe QCI. Specifically, for instance, these operations may occur on aper-operator basis. That is, different wireless providers may havedifferent criteria for whether SAP 210 should be disabled, and thedisabling and enabling would accordingly occur, for each individualwireless provider, based on instructions given by that wirelessprovider. Accordingly, a “disable” instruction for a particular QCIwould correspond to bearers, of that QCI, for UEs 205 that areassociated with the wireless provider who gave the instruction.

If, on the other hand, the KPIs for SAP 210 meet the threshold values(at 610—YES), then process 600 may include determining whether SAP 210is already enabled for that QCI. If SAP 210 is already enabled for theQCI (at 620—YES), then process 600 may return to block 605, and continuemonitoring KPIs associated with SAP 210. If SAP 210 is not alreadyenabled for the QCI (at 620—NO), then MDC 215 may output (at 625) an“enable” instruction” to SAP 210.

FIG. 7 conceptually illustrates an example of selective activation ordeactivation of an SAP based on KPIs of a particular licensed basestation 212, without necessarily needing to receive KPIs from theparticular licensed base station 212. Alternatively, in someimplementations, the example operations shown in FIG. 7 may supplement aprocess in which MDC 215 does receive KPIs from the particular licensedbase station 212.

For instance, as shown, UE 205 may establish (at arrow 1) a connectionwith SAP 210. As also shown, MDC 215 may receive, on an ongoing basis,KPI information from SAP 210 and a first licensed base station 212(shown as licensed base station 212-1). Licensed base station 212-2 mayalso be within communications range of UE 205, and UE 205 may determineKPIs related to licensed base station 212-2. For instance, UE 205 maymeasure signal strength-related KPIs (e.g., RSSI, SINR, or the like) forlicensed base station 212-2. In some implementations, UE 205 may measureother KPIs associated with licensed base station 212-2, such as bysending and/or receiving test signals to and/or from licensed basestation 212-2. As a result of these test signals, licensed base station212-2 may be able to determine throughput, latency, jitter, and/or othertypes of KPIs associated with licensed base station 212-2. Accordingly,MDC 215 may be able to determine KPI information associated withlicensed base station 212-2, without necessarily receiving KPIinformation directly from licensed base station 212-2.

As further shown, MDC 215 may determine (at arrow 2) that the KPIsassociated with licensed base station 212-2 “exceed” KPIs associatedwith SAP 210 and licensed base station 212-1. As noted above, theterminology “exceed,” in this instance, may refer to whether certainKPIs (or overall scores that are based on multiple KPIs) indicate thecapability of “better” performance (e.g., lower latency, lower jitter,higher signal strength, etc.). Based on making this determination, MDC215 may send (at arrow 3) a “disable” instruction to SAP 210, based onwhich the connection between SAP 210 and UE 205 may be broken (at arrow4).

Once the connection between SAP 210 and UE 205 is broken, UE 205 maysearch for a new cell. Based on this search, UE 205 may locate, andconnect to, licensed base station 212-2. For instance, while no explicitinstruction may be sent to UE 205 to connect to licensed base station212-2 over licensed base station 212-1, UE 205 itself may make thedetermination to connect to licensed base station 212-2, as a result ofits cell selection parameters. For instance, the signal strengthassociated with licensed base station 212-2 may be better than that oflicensed base station 212-1, and/or other known factors or processes maycause UE 205 to connect to licensed base station 212-2. In someimplementations, MDC 215 may communicate directly with UE 205 to informUE 205 that the KPIs of licensed base station 212-2 exceed those oflicensed base station 212-1, and UE 205 may use such communication as afactor in determining to connect to licensed base station 212-2.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example process 800, in which an alert may beprovided regarding whether the KPIs for a particular SAP 210 are near,or are approaching, a threshold level at which SAP 210 should bedisabled. While process 800 is described in the context of one SAP 210,the same or a similar process can be performed (e.g., simultaneously, inparallel), for multiple SAPs 210. Furthermore, as similarly describedabove, process 800 may be performed on a per-application and/or aper-QCI basis.

As shown, process 800 may include monitoring (at 805) KPIs associatedwith one or more SAPs 210. Process 800 may additionally includedetermining (at 810) whether the KPIs for SAP 210 meet a first set ofthreshold values (T1).

If the KPIs do not meet the first set of threshold values (at 810—NO),then process 800 may include outputting (at 815) a “disable” instructionto SAP 210. If, on the other hand, the KPIs for SAP 210 meet the firstset of threshold values (at 810—YES), then process 800 may includedetermining whether the KPIs exceed a second set of threshold values(T2). The second set of threshold values may be, in general terms, an“intermediate” set of threshold values that are not necessarilyindicative of performance that is poor enough to disable SAP 210. Forinstance, assuming that a first threshold value T1 for latency is 900milliseconds (ms), a second threshold value T2 for latency may be 300ms. As another example, a first threshold T1 for throughput may be 1Megabit per second (Mbps), while a second threshold T2 for throughputmay be 5 Mbps.

If the KPIs exceed the second set of threshold values (at 820—YES), thenprocess 800 may return to block 805, and continue monitoring KPIsassociated with SAP 210. If the KPIs do not exceed the second set ofthreshold values (at 820—NO), then MDC 215 may output (at 825) an alertindicating that the KPIs do not exceed the second set of thresholdvalues. For example, MDC 215 may output the alert to an administrator,owner, operator, etc. associated with MDC 215. The alert may indicatewhich KPI(s) did not exceed the second set of threshold values, mayindicate raw values associated with the KPI(s) that did not exceed thesecond set of threshold values, an amount of time over which the KPI(s)did not exceed the second set of threshold values, and/or otherpertinent information.

FIG. 9 illustrates a process 900 for proactively enabling or disablingan SAP based on historical trends. In some implementations, process 900may be performed by MDC 215. While process 900 is described in thecontext of one SAP 210, the same or a similar process can be performed(e.g., simultaneously, in parallel), for multiple SAPs 210. Furthermore,as similarly described above, process 900 may be performed on aper-application and/or a per-QCI basis.

As shown, process 900 may include monitoring (at 905) “enable” and“disable” instructions sent to SAP 210. For instance, over time, MDC 215may store information (e.g., time and/or date stamps) indicating when“enable” and/or “disable” instructions were sent to SAP 210.

Process 900 may further include identifying (at 910) historical trendsassociated with the enabling and/or disabling of SAP 210. For instance,MDC 215 may aggregate the data monitored at 905, and perform astatistical analysis to determine certain times and/or days at which“enable” and/or “disable” instructions were typically sent to SAP 210.For instance, MDC 215 may determine that a “disable” instruction wasroutinely sent to SAP 210 at approximately 9:00 AM on Mondays throughFridays, and that an “enable” instruction was routinely sent to SAP 210at approximately 5:00 PM on Mondays through Fridays. As another example,MDC 215 may determine that during the months of December and January, a“disable” instruction was routinely sent to SAP 210 at 10:00 PM onFridays, and that an “enable” instruction was routinely sent to SAP 210at 2:00 AM on Saturdays.

Process 900 may further include automatically outputting (at 915)“enable” and/or “disable” instructions to SAP 210 based on thehistorical trends identified at 910. For instance, referring to thefirst example above, MDC 215 may output a “disable” instruction to SAP210 at 9:00 AM on Mondays through Fridays, and may output an “enable”instruction to SAP 210 at 5:00 PM on Mondays through Fridays. Referringto the second example above, MDC 215 may output a “disable” instructionto SAP 210 at 10:00 PM on Fridays during the months of December andJanuary, and may output an “enable” instruction to SAP 210 at 2:00 AM onSaturdays during the months of December and January.

The automatic outputting (at 915) may be performed without havingdetermined whether monitored KPIs exceed a threshold or KPIs forlicensed base station 212 (e.g., as described above with respect toFIGS. 4-6). In some implementations, the automatic outputting (at 915)may cause the initiation of a timer, after which the state of SAP 210cannot be changed until the timer expires. For instance, assume that MDC215 automatically outputs (at 915) a “disable” instruction to SAP 210.MDC 215 may initiate a timer when outputting the “disable” instruction,and may monitor (or continue monitoring) KPIs associated with SAP 210.The timer may expire after a pre-defined duration, once the timer hasstarted. After the expiration of the timer, MDC 215 may, on an ongoingbasis, determine whether SAP 210 should be enabled, based on themonitored KPIs (e.g., as discussed above with respect to FIGS. 4-6).

MDC 215 may refine the times at which “enable” or “disable” instructionsare automatically provided (at 915) to SAP 210. For instance, if thestate of SAP 210 is changed shortly after (e.g., within a thresholdperiod of time, such as within 10 seconds, within 1 minute, etc.) aninstruction is automatically sent (at 915) to SAP 210, MDC 215 may ceaseautomatically sending an “enable” or “disable” instruction at thatparticular time and/or day.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of example components of device 1000. One or moreof the devices described above may include one or more devices 1000.Device 1000 may include bus 1010, processor 1020, memory 1030, inputcomponent 1040, output component 1050, and communication interface 1060.In another implementation, device 1000 may include additional, fewer,different, or differently arranged components.

Bus 1010 may include one or more communication paths that permitcommunication among the components of device 1000. Processor 1020 mayinclude a processor, microprocessor, or processing logic that mayinterpret and execute instructions. Memory 1030 may include any type ofdynamic storage device that may store information and instructions forexecution by processor 1020, and/or any type of non-volatile storagedevice that may store information for use by processor 1020.

Input component 1040 may include a mechanism that permits an operator toinput information to device 1000, such as a keyboard, a keypad, abutton, a switch, etc. Output component 1050 may include a mechanismthat outputs information to the operator, such as a display, a speaker,one or more light emitting diodes (“LEDs”), etc.

Communication interface 1060 may include any transceiver-like mechanismthat enables device 1000 to communicate with other devices and/orsystems. For example, communication interface 1060 may include anEthernet interface, an optical interface, a coaxial interface, or thelike. Communication interface 1060 may include a wireless communicationdevice, such as an infrared (“IR”) receiver, a Bluetooth® radio, or thelike. The wireless communication device may be coupled to an externaldevice, such as a remote control, a wireless keyboard, a mobiletelephone, etc. In some embodiments, device 1000 may include more thanone communication interface 1060. For instance, device 1000 may includean optical interface and an Ethernet interface.

Device 1000 may perform certain operations relating to one or moreprocesses described above. Device 1000 may perform these operations inresponse to processor 1020 executing software instructions stored in acomputer-readable medium, such as memory 1030. A computer-readablemedium may be defined as a non-transitory memory device. A memory devicemay include space within a single physical memory device or spreadacross multiple physical memory devices. The software instructions maybe read into memory 1030 from another computer-readable medium or fromanother device. The software instructions stored in memory 1030 maycause processor 1020 to perform processes described herein.Alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with software instructions to implement processes describedherein. Thus, implementations described herein are not limited to anyspecific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

The foregoing description of implementations provides illustration anddescription, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit thepossible implementations to the precise form disclosed. Modificationsand variations are possible in light of the above disclosure or may beacquired from practice of the implementations.

For example, while series of blocks have been described with regard toFIGS. 4-6, 8, and 9, the order of the signals may be modified in otherimplementations. Further, non-dependent signals may be performed inparallel. Additionally, while the figures have been described in thecontext of particular devices performing particular acts, in practice,one or more other devices may perform some or all of these acts in lieuof, or in addition to, the above-mentioned devices.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement an embodiment is not limiting of the embodiment. Thus, theoperation and behavior of the embodiment has been described withoutreference to the specific software code, it being understood thatsoftware and control hardware may be designed based on the descriptionherein.

Even though particular combinations of features are recited in theclaims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are notintended to limit the disclosure of the possible implementations. Infact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specificallyrecited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification. Althougheach dependent claim listed below may directly depend on only one otherclaim, the disclosure of the possible implementations includes eachdependent claim in combination with every other claim in the claim set.

Further, while certain connections or devices are shown, in practice,additional, fewer, or different, connections or devices may be used.Furthermore, while various devices and networks are shown separately, inpractice, the functionality of multiple devices may be performed by asingle device, or the functionality of one device may be performed bymultiple devices. Further, multiple ones of the illustrated networks maybe included in a single network, or a particular network may includemultiple networks. Further, while some devices are shown ascommunicating with a network, some such devices may be incorporated, inwhole or in part, as a part of the network.

To the extent the aforementioned embodiments collect, store or employpersonal information provided by individuals, it should be understoodthat such information shall be used in accordance with all applicablelaws concerning protection of personal information. Additionally, thecollection, storage and use of such information may be subject toconsent of the individual to such activity, for example, throughwell-known “opt-in” or “opt-out” processes, as may be appropriate forthe situation and type of information. Storage and use of personalinformation may be in an appropriately secure manner reflective of thetype of information (e.g., through various encryption and anonymizationtechniques for particularly sensitive information).

Some implementations described herein may be described in conjunctionwith thresholds. The term “greater than” (or similar terms), as usedherein to describe a relationship of a value to a threshold, may be usedinterchangeably with the term “greater than or equal to” (or similarterms), unless a distinction is made herein that makes such aninterpretation indefinite or inaccurate. Similarly, the term “less than”(or similar terms), as used herein to describe a relationship of a valueto a threshold, may be used interchangeably with the term “less than orequal to” (or similar terms), unless a distinction is made herein thatmakes such an interpretation indefinite or inaccurate. As used herein,“exceeding” a threshold (or similar terms) may be used interchangeablywith “being greater than a threshold,” “being greater than or equal to athreshold,” “being less than a threshold,” “being less than or equal toa threshold,” or other similar terms, depending on the context in whichthe threshold is used.

No element, act, or instruction used in the present application shouldbe construed as critical or essential unless explicitly described assuch. An instance of the use of the term “and,” as used herein, does notnecessarily preclude the interpretation that the phrase “and/or” wasintended in that instance. Similarly, an instance of the use of the term“or,” as used herein, does not necessarily preclude the interpretationthat the phrase “and/or” was intended in that instance. Also, as usedherein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items, andmay be used interchangeably with the phrase “one or more.” Where onlyone item is intended, the terms “one,” “single,” “only,” or similarlanguage is used. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean“based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device, comprising: a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing a set of processor-executableinstructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the setof processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the set ofprocessor-executable instructions causes the one or more processors to:determine whether a performance of a wireless shared access point(“SAP”), for which access is shared by a plurality of wirelessproviders, meets a threshold performance; when the performance of thewireless SAP meets the threshold performance: if the wireless SAP iscurrently disabled for access by user equipment (“UEs”) associated withthe particular wireless provider, output an instruction, to the SAP, toenable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wirelessprovider; and when the performance of the SAP does not meet thethreshold performance: output an instruction, to the SAP, to disable theSAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider.2. The device of claim 1, wherein the threshold performance is a firstthreshold performance associated with a first application, whereinexecuting the processor-executable instructions further causes the oneor more processors to: store information indicating a second thresholdperformance associated with a second application, wherein the firstthreshold performance is different from the second thresholdperformance.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein executing theprocessor-executable instructions further causes the one or moreprocessors to: determine that a bearer establishment request has beenreceived from a UE associated with the particular wireless provider; anddetermine that the bearer establishment request is associated with thefirst application, wherein the determination of whether the performanceof the SAP meets the threshold performance includes: determining whetherthe performance of the SAP meets the first threshold performance, basedon the determination that the bearer establishment request is associatedwith the first application.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein theinstruction, to disable the SAP for access by UEs associated with theparticular wireless provider, causes the SAP to terminate existingconnections with one or more UEs associated with the particular wirelessprovider.
 5. The device of claim 1, wherein the instruction, to disablethe SAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wirelessprovider, includes an instruction to disallow bearer establishmentrequests from UEs associated with the particular wireless provider. 6.The device of claim 1, wherein the instruction, to disable the SAP foraccess by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider, includesan instruction to cease broadcasting availability of the SAP to handlebearer establishment requests from UEs associated with the particularwireless provider.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein executing theprocessor-executable instructions further causes the one or moreprocessors to: adjust the threshold based on a time of day, a day ofweek, or a month of year.
 8. The device of claim 1, wherein executingthe processor-executable instructions further causes the one or moreprocessors to: after outputting the instruction to enable or disable theSAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider,initiating a timer, wherein a subsequent instruction, to enable ordisable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider, cannot be sent prior to expiration of the timer. 9.The device of claim 1, wherein executing the processor-executableinstructions further causes the one or more processors to: monitorinstructions, outputted to the SAP, to enable or disable the SAP foraccess by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider; identifyone or more historical trends associated with the monitoredinstructions, outputted to the SAP, to enable or disable the SAP foraccess by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider; andoutput an instruction to enable or disable the SAP, for access by UEsassociated with the particular wireless provider, at one or more timesthat are based on the identified one or more historical trends.
 10. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium, storing a set ofprocessor-executable instructions, wherein execution of the set ofprocessor-executable instructions, by one or more processors, causes theone or more processors to: determine whether a performance of a wirelessshared access point (“SAP”), for which access is shared by a pluralityof wireless providers, meets a threshold performance; when theperformance of the wireless SAP meets the threshold performance: if thewireless SAP is currently disabled for access by user equipment (“UEs”)associated with the particular wireless provider, output an instruction,to the SAP, to enable the SAP for access by UEs associated with theparticular wireless provider; and when the performance of the SAP doesnot meet the threshold performance: output an instruction, to the SAP,to disable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider.
 11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 10, wherein the threshold performance is a first thresholdperformance associated with a first application, wherein executing theprocessor-executable instructions further causes the one or moreprocessors to: store information indicating a second thresholdperformance associated with a second application, wherein the firstthreshold performance is different from the second thresholdperformance.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim11, wherein executing the processor-executable instructions furthercauses the one or more processors to: determine that a bearerestablishment request has been received from a UE associated with theparticular wireless provider; and determine that the bearerestablishment request is associated with the first application, whereinthe determination of whether the performance of the SAP meets thethreshold performance includes: determining whether the performance ofthe SAP meets the first threshold performance, based on thedetermination that the bearer establishment request is associated withthe first application.
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumof claim 10, wherein the instruction, to disable the SAP for access byUEs associated with the particular wireless provider, causes the SAP toterminate existing connections with one or more UEs associated with theparticular wireless provider.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 10, wherein the instruction, to disable the SAP foraccess by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider, includesan instruction to disallow bearer establishment requests from UEsassociated with the particular wireless provider.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instruction, todisable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider, includes an instruction to cease broadcastingavailability of the SAP to handle bearer establishment requests from UEsassociated with the particular wireless provider.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein executing theprocessor-executable instructions further causes the one or moreprocessors to: after outputting the instruction to enable or disable theSAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider,initiating a timer, wherein a subsequent instruction, to enable ordisable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider, cannot be sent prior to expiration of the timer. 17.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, whereinexecuting the processor-executable instructions further causes the oneor more processors to: monitor instructions, outputted to the SAP, toenable or disable the SAP for access by UEs associated with theparticular wireless provider; identify one or more historical trendsassociated with the monitored instructions, outputted to the SAP, toenable or disable the SAP for access by UEs associated with theparticular wireless provider; and output an instruction to enable ordisable the SAP, for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider, at one or more times that are based on the identifiedone or more historical trends.
 18. A method, comprising: determining, bya device, whether a performance of a wireless shared access point(“SAP”), for which access is shared by a plurality of wirelessproviders, meets a threshold performance; when the performance of thewireless SAP meets the threshold performance: if the wireless SAP iscurrently disabled for access by user equipment (“UEs”) associated withthe particular wireless provider, outputting, by the device, aninstruction, to the SAP, to enable the SAP for access by UEs associatedwith the particular wireless provider; and when the performance of theSAP does not meet the threshold performance: outputting, by the deviceand to the SAP, an instruction to disable the SAP for access by UEsassociated with the particular wireless provider.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the threshold performance is a first thresholdperformance associated with a first application, wherein the methodfurther comprises: storing information indicating a second thresholdperformance associated with a second application, wherein the firstthreshold performance is different from the second thresholdperformance; determining that a bearer establishment request has beenreceived from a UE associated with the particular wireless provider; anddetermining that the bearer establishment request is associated with thefirst application, wherein the determination of whether the performanceof the SAP meets the threshold performance includes: determining whetherthe performance of the SAP meets the first threshold performance, basedon the determination that the bearer establishment request is associatedwith the first application.
 20. The method of claim 18, furthercomprising: after outputting the instruction to enable or disable theSAP for access by UEs associated with the particular wireless provider,initiating a timer, wherein a subsequent instruction, to enable ordisable the SAP for access by UEs associated with the particularwireless provider, cannot be sent prior to expiration of the timer.